Bond star Eva Green is in contention for a Bafta award honouring exceptional young acting talent.

The 26-year-old French actress, who stars in Casino Royale, is nominated for the Rising Star Award.

She faces competition from Perfume star Ben Whishaw and The Wind That Shakes the Barley's Cillian Murphy.

Naomie Harris, who appeared in Miami Vice, and Emily Blunt, a Golden Globe nominee for The Devil Wears Prada, are also in the running for the award.

The Rising Star Award is in its second year, having gone to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe actor James McAvoy in 2006.

The winner is decided by public vote, via text message and the website of Bafta sponsor Orange. It will be announced at the British Academy Film Awards ceremony on 11 February.

As well as starring opposite new 007 Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, Green has appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers and will be seen in the forthcoming His Dark Materials adaptation The Golden Compass.

Whishaw, 26, played Rolling Stone Keith Richards in the 2005 Brian Jones biopic Stoned, and also appeared in Layer Cake and Enduring Love.

Thirty-year-old Irish actor Cillian Murphy shot to fame in the horror film 28 Days Later, and earned a Golden Globe nomination last year as a transvestite in Breakfast on Pluto.

Harris, 30, was also in 28 Days Later and has subsequently enjoyed Hollywood success in After The Sunset, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Miami Vice.

Blunt's first film role was in My Summer of Love, which won the 2005 Bafta for best British film. She is 23.